Category: Book

About 4-5 year ago, when I first started to take game development seriously. I want to know how to properly developing a game. Back then I just code them and as long as it done I stopped developed them. Back then I don’t understand how important testing and profiling is. But I notice that my code causing bug and performance issue. Sometimes even worse, crash. And then I was wondering if there is like best practice or like tips while developing a game so I can make a better game, less bug and better performance or at least how to handle bug if I found one or how to find what causing performance drop and so on.

I decide to buy a book that would help me. Unfortunately, I can’t find books that good enough at my country. It not like they are bad, but mostly they teach how to use tools like game maker, how to make a game using Flash or something similar. I can’t really use them. First I’m using C++ as a programming language of choice. Second, I’m not fond of book or guide that tell me to do that without explaining the reason why I should do that. So I decide to import a book from Amazon. It was the first time in my life I’m importing book. But there is one problem. Which one should I buy?

Confused because there’s so many books in the amazon. I decide to at least try one book and decide if I like it. I end up buy a “Game Coding Complete, Fourth Edition” because I read a review that this book from somewhere (not amazon review) that this book is good, some even say this is essential. I must wait like 3-4 month before this book reach my hand. Yeah, that long. My country handling import item really bad. It takes only 1 month or less for amazon to send this book to my country, but they stay at the port for 2-3 month. Not to mention the tax. This is one of the reasons I want to move overseas and never come back forever. Anyway back to this book. You may ask “Is the book good?”.

My answer. Yes, it is very good.

I already read them but sometimes still re-read them. It doesn’t cover everything and you must read other books to cover what it lack, but at least it give you idea what to do when making a game. I think the one that made this book is doing a great job putting them together.

This book not only teach you about coding a game, but they put their own experience when coding a game. For example, what to avoid when coding a game, what the good and bad, and many more. It teaches me what importance about coding standard and repository because back then I don’t think they useful and decide to ignore them. How to find what make your game slow is important too. When making a game, you make real-time application. An application that functions within a time frame that the user senses as immediate or current. So it important to make your application run as fast as possible. Fast application mean more thing you can do per frame.

I really recommended this book especially if you don’t have an idea how to make a game. But be careful, this book use C++ as their programming language so if you aren’t fond of C++, this book may not really for you.